In rear-wheel drive and four-wheel drive motor vehicles, the torque is transmitted from the gearbox to the rear-axle drive by means of so-called articulated shafts. Due to the movement of aggregates, the articulated shaft has to be able to compensate for an angular offset during operation.
When flexible rubber couplings are not used, the above-mentioned angular compensation is generally carried out by cardan joints, especially universal joints, or homokinetic joints, especially constant velocity joints.
The reduction of the number of cylinders in order to save weight as well as the use of supercharged combustion engines intensify rotational irregularities in the drive trains of motor vehicles. This gives rise to intensified low-frequency rotational irregularities.
Rotational irregularities in a combustion engine can excite a local resonance site in the drive train. This can be acoustically noticeable. Torsionally harmonized mass dampers are often used in order to remedy this. Normally, these mass dampers are either attached relatively close to a gear flange on a shaft tube or on a flange by means of a press fit.
In an ever-growing number of applications, the torsional frequency of the mass dampers is less than 50 Hz. In order to prevent larger unbalances at these low frequencies due to radial migration of the damper ring, radial support elements in the form of rolling elements or sliding bearings are normally needed in conventional arrangements. A design of a mass damper of the above-mentioned type is described in Community Design 001 785 676-0001.
A mass damper that has radial support elements, however, is susceptible to wear and dirt. Moreover, strict tolerance values have to be adhered to during the production of metal parts since the metal parts have to be harmonized with the support elements.